Here's how the City of Milwaukee processes its absentee ballots on Election Day, into the night

How the City of Milwaukee runs its elections — especially as it relates to absentee voting — comes under intense scrutiny when high-profile races are on the ballot.

That will be the case on Tuesday, when voters across the nation head to the polls to decide whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris will win the White House.

But well before Nov. 5, voting in Wisconsin was under way. Already, hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots have been returned across the state, with tens of thousands coming from City of Milwaukee voters.

And, as in other communities that count their absentee ballots in a single location known as central count, Milwaukee will report its absentee ballot results all at once hours after the polls close on Election Day. Those results are expected to be reported sometime after midnight on Nov. 6.

The volume of ballots in this heavily Democratic city means those votes can change the course of statewide elections when they are added to the total, often late at night.

This predictable — and expected — sequence of events has nonetheless been used by some Republicans to falsely claim something was amiss in the election administration of Wisconsin's largest city.

Below is the general process to count and publicly report the City of Milwaukee's absentee ballot results, based on the city Election Commission's documented processes and interviews with election officials at the city and county.

The document showing the full 42-step process is included at the end of this story.

On Nov. 5, Milwaukee central count will be held at the Baird Center

Milwaukee will count its absentee ballots at the Baird Center downtown for the presidential election, a process that under state law cannot begin until 7 a.m. on Election Day.

The city will use 13 machines to count its absentee ballots. Those machines are not connected to the internet, so the results must be downloaded onto thumb drives and taken to Milwaukee County at the end of the night.

Under the Election Commission's lengthy absentee ballot procedure, election officials must document their steps, and multiple people are involved in the process.

"In elections, it's always a big paper trail, checks and balances," Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez said during a public demonstration of voting equipment Saturday. "And even after the election is over, there are multiple audits at multiple levels of government."

At the start of the day, before central count begins:

• Two members of the Board of Absentee Canvassers will turn on the machines used to tally the absentee ballot results and confirm the machines show that zero absentee ballots have been counted.

• The door that covers the power button along with all other openings to the machine are locked and sealed.

• The serial numbers on those seals are written on a form that is then initialed by the chief inspector and a member of the Board of Absentee Canvassers.

Before any ballots are processed, two staff members will:

• Confirm that the machine shows zero absentee ballots have been counted before signing the zero report.

• Confirm that all seals on the machine are intact and that the serial numbers on the seals match those already recorded on a form. They then initial that form.

• Place the signed zero report and form with the serial numbers on a table in view of the public.

In the afternoon, a public announcement will be made at central count. The following will then happen:

• The chief inspector in view of the public will clear and reformat the thumb drives onto which the absentee ballot results will be exported from each machine when the counting is done. This process is then noted on a chain of custody incident log.

• The cleared and labeled thumb drives are put into designated red memory pack transfer bags and sealed with a ballot bag lock. On the outside of the bags, the chief inspector notes the thumb drive labels and then records the serial number from the ballot bag locks onto the respective chain of custody forms.

• The serial numbers are verified by a representative from each political party and a member of the Board of Absentee Canvassers. The group will then sign a pre-export certification on the chain of custody forms.

• In public view, those now-secure memory pack transfer bags and the chain of custody forms will be placed inside a secure box that will be locked and stay in a secured area in public view for the rest of the day.

Exporting of the absentee ballot results from the machines begins after polls are closed, all eligible ballots have been processed and election workers have confirmed that each ward reconciles.

• There will be an announcement that the process to export the absentee ballot results is going to start.

• The Board of Election Commissioners will meet at the locked box where the thumb drives were kept, and the Election Commission executive director and deputy director will break the lock box seal to get the red bags with the thumb drives along with the chain of custody forms.

• Designated witnesses will confirm that the serial numbers on the chain-of-custody forms and transfer bags match.

• The executive director, deputy and commissioners will go to their assigned machines to start exporting the absentee ballot results.

Both teams will go at the same time to their assigned ballot processing machines.

• The red bag's lock will be cut at the first machine to access the thumb drive assigned to that machine, the seal will be broken on the door to the machine's USB port and the chief inspector will record the time the seal was broken.

• The chief inspector will insert the cleared thumb drive into the machine and export the unofficial results.

• The thumb drive with the data is put into an empty green memory pack transfer bag, which is additionally secured along with associated paperwork that includes final printed reports.

• A sealed bag with the results and documentation is then ready to take to the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

When Milwaukee's absentee ballot results leave central count on their way to the Milwaukee County Courthouse

The Election Commission executive director and deputy director along with members of the Board of Election Commissioners will escort the secured ballot bag inside a Milwaukee police vehicle to the Milwaukee County Election Commission at the county Courthouse.

Milwaukee's absentee ballot results reach the Milwaukee County Courthouse

When they reach the courthouse, the city officials will sign the thumb drives over to Milwaukee County Election Director Michelle Hawley.

Hawley will then load the absentee ballot results into the election reporting system.

She expected that process to take between 20 to 25 minutes before the results become available to the public on the county's election night website.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Here's how Milwaukee processes its absentee ballots on Election Day